Open systems and multi-vendor systems have been the recent trends of IT systems, and IT systems have grown in scale and complexity as a result of increasing number of servers and increasing storage volume. This leads not only to higher operational costs but also to frequent occurrence of system shutdown and lower quality service due to human errors. In order to prevent these problems, importance may be placed on management of configuration information of IT systems including servers, storages and applications.
A database, more specifically what is called a configuration management database, is known as a device to manage configuration information of an IT system. The configuration management database stores operations management data of an IT system, and corresponds to a database of operations management middleware.
The operation of a data center requires operations management middleware pieces optimized for corresponding management jobs including server management, network management, service management, and asset management. The operations management middleware pieces include their respective configuration management databases into which configuration information about the corresponding jobs are entered. That is, one configuration management database manages configuration information independently of a different configuration management database. Accordingly, in some cases, access to configuration management databases may be made in respective ways, or the configuration management databases store configuration information in respective formats. Thus, an actual situation is that the configuration management databases cannot be linked with one another without human intervention.
In response, a distributed information management system has been developed that includes a database called FCMDB (federated configuration management database) in which configuration information of various types spreading over a plurality of configuration management databases are virtually integrated. In the distributed information management system with the FCMDB, configuration management databases to be virtually integrated are called MDRs (management data repositories). As an example, a distributed information management system illustrated in FIG. 14 includes a plurality of MDRs and an FCMDB that are connected through a network. FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating the FCMDB.
The MDRs each manage information such as that about the structure of a device existing in an IT system. The MDRs handle data of respective types and respective amounts. As a specific example, as illustrated in FIG. 14, an MDR 1 manages design information, an MDR 2 manages product information, an MDR 3 manages quality information, and an MDR 4 manages configuration information.
The FCMDB integrates configuration information about one object that is managed separately in the plurality of MDRs, and manages the integrated configuration information. More specifically, the FCMDB manages configuration items (CIs) of an IT system including a device, software and datalog, and relationships between the CIs (hereinafter called “relationships”). In the example of FIG. 14, a CI “C” managed in the FCMDB is integrated data of design information C″ stored in the MDR 1, quality information C^ stored in the MDR 3, and configuration information C′ stored in the MDR 4.
As described, the FCMDB integrates configuration information about one object that is managed separately in the plurality of MDRs, and manages the integrated configuration information. Accordingly, in all situation of the system operation including application of patches and hardware maintenance, an operator such as a system administrator is allowed to easily understand the overall structure of the IT system by referring to the configuration information virtually integrated by the FCMDB.
A distributed FCMDB system with a plurality of FCMDBs is known that is intended to enhance scalability. In a distributed FCMDB system illustrated in FIG. 15, information in MDRs are distributedly managed in a plurality of FCMDBs, and the plurality of FCMDBs distributedly perform data entry and data search independently of one another. FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating the distributed FCMDB system.
In this distributed FCMDB system, data is separately entered into each of the FCMDBs in units of CIs and relationships. Data entry is described in detail by using the example illustrated in FIG. 16. FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating conventional data entry. In the distributed FCMDB system, for entry of data containing three CIs (CI1, CI2 and CI3) and two relationships (R1 and R2) that are connected together, CI1, R2, CI3, R1 and CI2 are entered separately into different FCMDBs as illustrated in FIG. 16.
In the distributed FCMDB system, when one FCMDB accepts a search request from a client terminal, the FCMDB decomposes the search request such that a CI and a relationship contained in the search request are treated as a subquery, and performs a search process thereafter. As illustrated in the example illustrated in FIG. 17, the FCMDB accepts a query formula “%Server[record/status=‘error’]/&ManagedBy/%Person/record/tel” as a search request to “acquire the telephone number of an administrator of a broken-down server.”
In this case, the FCMDB decomposes the formula into a subquery 1 “%Server[record/status=‘error’],” a subquery 2 “/&ManagedBy/,” and a subquery 3 “%Person/record/tel.”
The FCMDB having accepted the search request searches data stored in the FCMDB itself, or data stored in a different FCMDB, and then processes subqueries sequentially. A search process is described next by using the example illustrated in FIG. 16 performed when a query formula “%CI2/&R2/%CI3” is accepted that is a request to search for CI3 having a relationship called R2 with CI2.
An FCMDB having accepted the search request specifies an FCMDB in which CI2 targeted for the search is stored. Then, the FCMDB having accepted the search request communicates with the FCMDB in which CI2 is stored to retrieve CI2 targeted for the search. Next, the FCMDB communicates with other FCMDBs to search for R2 having such a link that the ID of CI2 is designated at one of ends of the link, and then retrieves the ID of CI3 at the opposite end of the link. Then, based on the retrieved ID, the FCMDB having accepted the search request determines an FCMDB in which CI3 is stored, and communicates with this FCMDB to retrieve the data of CI3. Next, the FCMDB having accepted the search request outputs the data of CI3 to the client terminal as a search result.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2004-252789    Patent Document 2: Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2000-250918.
In the technique of the aforementioned distributed FCMDB system, CIs and relationships are entered separately into different FCMDBs. This means that a search process requires frequent communications between FCMDBs, leading to lower processing speed in the search process.